Video: Meet Richmond's Olympians...racewalker Evan Dunfee

The Richmond News sat down via a Zoom video link with some of Richmond's Olympic hopefuls for Tokyo and talked candidly about their preparations, hopes and dreams for the upcoming Games.

To kick off our "Meet Richmond's Olympians" series, they don’t come any more Richmond than Olympian racewalker Evan Dunfee.

Born and bred in the city, the 50-kilometre specialist lives in Richmond and trains in his home city.

Dunfee – who came agonizingly close to winning a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio – can often be seen training on the streets of his home town, pounding out his daily 25 to 30K routine.

He made history at the 2019 World Athletics Championships when he won bronze to become Canada’s first ever medallist in the 50K race walk at the global biennial event.

The 30-year-old Canadian-record holder over 10,000 metres and 50K is desperate to make amends for the incident late in that 2016 race when he appeared to be bumped by a Japanese opponent, effectively costing him the bronze medal.

Dunfee received national and international acclaim in the aftermath of the race for not appealing the judge’s decision to give his rival, Hirooki Arai, the bronze.

In the first of our “Meet Richmond’s Olympians” shows – shot live on Zoom – Dunfee jokes about his plans to avoid a repeat of Rio, if he’s in medal contention late in the race.

He also talks about his preparations before flying out to Tokyo next week and how he prepares on the day of the race itself, including using women’s stockings from the freezer.